Village of the Sleeping Beauty

Viktor and Maria Popov are not in a hurry. They live in a time vacuum in …

Origin country:
Finland
Production company:
Taiga Films Ltd
Original title:
Village of the Sleeping Beauty

Viktor and Maria Popov are not in a hurry. They live in a time vacuum in Paanajärvi village in the poorest corner of Russia, in Russian Karelia.

To the inhabitants of Paanajärvi their home village has been the same for centuries: grey log buildings, smoky saunas, decorative window frames. For folklorists, on the other hand, Paanajärvi is a pearl of culture and architecture. A community in which lives one of the four remaining original European cultures.

In 1996, Paanajärvi village was placed on the list of the hundred most threatened cultural places in the world, maintained by the World Monument Watch. The village is threatened by plans for a hydro-electric plant which, if realised, would submerge the old buildings and the solitary original culture under water.

The film group follows the everyday life of Viktor and Maria in Paanajärvi over a period of two years. The documentary is also an illustration of the uncomplicated coexistence of people with nature which, if lost, would take the right of existence from the humanity itself.

International awards:
- Special Prize of the Jury in Wildlife Europe Film Festival in Sundsvall, Sweden, 2001. - Pärnu Visu Prize in the 16th International Documentary and Anthropology Film Festival in Pärnu, Estonia, 2002
- Honourable Mention in the category of documentaries in Barents TV Festival, 2002.
- In the list of Top5 of the European tv-documentaries in the final competition of Prix Europa festival in Berlin, 2002
- Grand Award at the biggest nature film festival in Asia, the Japan Wildlife Festival, 2003